Most of the refugees here are from eastern Bosnia, the areas closest to Serbia that were the first to be overrun and cleansed during April and May 1992.

Perhaps the numb expressions on these children's faces can explain what they experienced better than words can. All we know is that they watched as their parents were killed.

During three trips to Bosnia between 1995 and 1997, Glenn Ruga, Frank Ward, and Barbara Ayotte recorded the stories of people in Bosnia who have survived ethnic cleansing and genocide. As they rebuilt their lives, refugees, professionals, and government officials talk about their past experiences and their hopes for a united and multi-ethnic Bosnia.

During three trips to Bosnia between 1995 and 1997, Glenn Ruga, Frank Ward, and Barbara Ayotte recorded the stories of people in Bosnia who have survived ethnic cleansing and genocide. As they rebuilt their lives, refugees, professionals, and government officials talk about their past experiences and their hopes for a united and multi-ethnic Bosnia.

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Glenn Ruga | Zones of Separation: The Struggle for a Multi-ethnic Bosnia | Bosnia and Herzegovina

Most of the refugees here are from eastern Bosnia, the areas closest to Serbia that were the first to be overrun and cleansed during April and May 1992.
Perhaps the numb expressions on these children's faces can explain what they experienced better than words can. All we know is that they watched as their parents were killed.

Glenn Ruga | Zones of Separation: The Struggle for a Multi-ethnic Bosnia | Bosnia and Herzegovina

No building in Sarajevo represents the magnitude of destruction more than the twin Unis Towers in Sarajevo. Home to the largest commercial enterprise in Bosnia, it was reduced to a skeleton of twisted steel and broken glass.
Adjacent to but much taller than the Holiday Inn in New Sarajevo, the Unis Towers were a clear shot for Serb snipers and artillery men in the hills across the Miljacka River and in neighboring Grbavica, a Serb- controlled ghetto.

Glenn Ruga | Zones of Separation: The Struggle for a Multi-ethnic Bosnia | Bosnia and Herzegovina

Doctor at Kosevo Hospital in Sarajevo

Glenn Ruga | Zones of Separation: The Struggle for a Multi-ethnic Bosnia | Bosnia and Herzegovina

Before the war, this building was a hotel owned by the Famos Company, a factory producing parts for Mercedes-Benz. Now it is a collective center for refugees, mostly from eastern Bosnia.
From three to seven people live in each small hotel room, doing all of their cooking, eating, and sleeping together there.Hrasnica, at the base of Mt. Igman and close to Serb-held areas, was never safe from shelling, yet it was a sanctuary for people fleeing the worst zones of the war.

Glenn Ruga | Zones of Separation: The Struggle for a Multi-ethnic Bosnia | Bosnia and Herzegovina

One of the most flagrant attacks on a medical facility during the war took place in May 1992 when Bosnian Serb forces, at close range, repeatedly shelled the Children's Clinic, Kosevo Hospital, Sarajevo. Pictured here is head of the Pediatric Clinic Esma Zecevic.
Dr. Esma Zecevic, chief of pediatrics, moved all of the young patients, including 17 premature babies, to a basement shelter at a nearby clinic. Hours after they evacuated, the neonatal unit burned to the ground. In the shelter, nine of the babies died because incubators had not been transported. Forty-seven years' worth of medical records were destroyed. More than 1,000 children died during the siege of Sarajevo.Many

Glenn Ruga | Zones of Separation: The Struggle for a Multi-ethnic Bosnia | Bosnia and Herzegovina

The National Library in Sarajevo is one of the most well-known buildings in Sarajevo. Built by the Austro-Hungarian administration in 1896 in a Moorish Revival style, it has been used as the seat of the Austro-Hungarian administration, the Bosnian parliament building, the Sarajevo Town Hall, and finally the National and University Library.The building was an easy target and massively assaulted by incendiary bombs in August 1992. While the building was awash in flames, some brave librarians and residents of Sarajevo attempted to save what they could, but most of the contents were quickly destroyed in a tremendous conflagration.

Glenn Ruga | Zones of Separation: The Struggle for a Multi-ethnic Bosnia | Bosnia and Herzegovina

Martyr's Cemetery, Sarajevo.

Glenn Ruga | Zones of Separation: The Struggle for a Multi-ethnic Bosnia | Bosnia and Herzegovina

Nermina and her three- and- a-half-year- old daughter, Melissa, are from Rogatica. After the first wave of ethnic cleansing, they were driven into Gorazde -- the only town in eastern Bosnia never to have fallen to the Serbs. Gorazde was completely sealed off and people were starving. Nermina's husband left in search of food and found that aid was available in Hrasnica. He went back to get his family and they hiked for three days over snow-covered mountains before reaching Hrasnica.
Melissa, who was only six months old at the time, didn't eat for the entire trip and her parents

Glenn Ruga | Zones of Separation: The Struggle for a Multi-ethnic Bosnia | Bosnia and Herzegovina

A common sign in Sarajevo during the war.

Glenn Ruga | Zones of Separation: The Struggle for a Multi-ethnic Bosnia | Bosnia and Herzegovina

Apartment building in Dobrinja, built in 1986 to house athletes during the 1986 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo.